Media centre

Practical Exercises: Story development

FORMAT

90 minute Practical Exercise

TOPIC / SUBJECT / THEME

Developing ‘newsworthy’ stories that highlight and respect children’s rights

PURPOSES

Journalistic

· To strengthen story development, research and construction skills

Children’s Rights

To show that rights issues can make a good basis for stories
To encourage journalists to consider whether their story production methods respect children’s rights

OUTCOME / RESULT

Primary

A well-constructed (feature) story model that highlights a children’s rights issue

Secondary

· Presentation skills

ASSESSMENT / EVALUATION

Informal

Observe the interaction within working groups, and the presentation skills (clarity, time, etc.

Formal

Students should be asked to submit their presentation in writing, with a list of the participants and the role they played in developing the story.

RESOURCES

The Media & Children’s Rights: A resource for journalists by journalists
Paper & pens
Black/Whiteboard or Flip-chart & marker pens
Single paragraph story briefs based on real stories, prepared by tutor
HANDOUTS
- Principles for Reporting Children (see RESOURCES)
- IFJ Guidelines on Reporting Children (see RESOURCES)

IMPLEMENTATION

1. Briefly introduce students to The Media & Children’s Rights

Explain that its function is to improve awareness of children rights among media professionals by demonstrating that the UNCRC can be an inspiration for important story ideas.

It groups the 54 Articles of the Convention into 15 broad ‘themes’ (Education Crime; Disability, etc).

For each theme there are

STORYLINES – questions designed to suggest possible story ideas
CHECKLISTS – questions designed to make journalists think about the way they have approached their stories

It also contains notes on · The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child · The UN Millennium Development Goals · The UN Declaration: A world fit for children And some useful guidelines

on reporting children (International Federation of Journalists)
on health reporting (World Health Organisation)

Plus

Anniversaries that might may useful hooks for stories
Contact details for international children’s and media organisations

2. NOW distribute copies

3. Divide students into SMALL ‘Editorial groups’

Explain that they will be developing a story

Provide each group with one of the brief story outlines prepared in advance.

Eg 3 year old boy sentenced to 10 years in prison for assault

Mentally handicapped children complains about treatment in hostel

Mother arrested for trying to sell her daughter

Gang of young men raped boy aged 12

Gifted child wins international scholarship

Children crushed playing in earthquake damaged buildings

Children of internally displaced families are not being registered

4. Ask each group to consider how their story fits into any of the 15 themes offered by the handbook

5. Using the handbook as a guide ask each group to prepare a Story Outline which should include

a Headline,
an Introductory paragraph,
a summary of the story
the (type of) publication/programme in which you want it to appear
a list of people they will speak to (with contact details where appropriate)
the illustrations they would use
a concluding paragraph
a comment about which children’s rights are covered by the story.

6. Allow up to 45 minutes for the groups to compete this process; ask them to indicate when they are ready.

7. Invite a selection of groups to send a speaker and a ‘scribe’ to the front and make a verbal presentation with notes written up on the Board.

8. Encourage other students to comment before offering your own observations.

9. End the session by asking students to find print of broadcast stories which successfully highlight children’s rights, and which clearly ignore them.

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